(Jul 18, 2007)
Waterloo Record
Blocking railway tracks gets aboriginal protesters noticed. Talking quietly at a table gets aboriginal negotiators results. You decide which strategy makes the most sense today.
The latest victory for one of Canada's First Nations came Monday when leaders of northern Quebec's 16,500 Cree announced a $1.4 billion deal with Ottawa that will eventually give this aboriginal community a form of self-government. The deal was a long time coming -- 32 years to be exact. But the important thing now is that it came. As for the Cree, they deserve praise for patience, perseverance and relying on negotiations instead of resorting to illegal protests or even violence, as have some native groups.
Ever since 1975, when the giant James Bay power project was being built on Cree lands, there has been a dispute over how the natives would be compensated. In 2002, the Cree cut a deal with the Quebec government that awarded the natives $3.5 billion. Now the Cree have a tentative agreement with the federal government.
What they have won is substantial as well as deserved. They will receive $1.4 billion over the next two decades, money that can improve services in remote Cree communities ranging from sewers and roads to policing and, most importantly, economic development projects. They will also begin working with the Quebec and federal governments to develop a new form of regional, self-government. Based on the deal they've just made with Ottawa, the Cree will assume federal responsibilities in administering justice as well as economic and social development.
The Cree must still ratify this new federal deal in a referendum. But the deal bodes well for them and their future. And what they have achieved through negotiations stands in marked contrast to the limited or complete lack of progress made by aboriginal groups that have chosen to break the law to get what they want.
At the end of June, Mohawk protesters were responsible for closing a main rail line and Highway 401 in eastern Ontario.
Their confrontational tactics -- which included the threat that they were armed with rifles and would use them in self-defence -- got international attention. However, aside from landing a native leader in jail and creating a lot of ill-will in the general public, the confrontations gained the natives nothing. Likewise, the occupation of a subdivision in Caledonia has not delivered to a group of Six Nations protesters the land that they wanted, even though it has dragged on for nearly 1 1/2 years and been marred by physical assaults, vandalism and a tension between the local aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities that has not abated.
To be sure, any government that caves in to the demand of lawbreakers -- native or otherwise -- treads on dangerous ground. There are literally hundreds of native land claims awaiting resolution. If federal and provincial governments fast-track deals with protesters who break the law and threaten violence while stalling native leaders who rely on good-faith bargaining, what message will those governments send? What precedents will they set?
It is good that the Cree put their trust in talks, not blockades. Their wisdom should teach a lesson to all Canadians. "It's nation-building,'' Billy Diamond, the Cree founding grand chief said of the deal. "It beats blocking roads. It beats blocking railways."
Also worth listening to are the words of an ex-chief of the Cree Grand Council, Matthew Coon-Come. "This agreement restores my faith in the value of negotiation,'' he said. Hear! Hear!